


The Interview

by LetsGankIt



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Post-Avengers (2012)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-04
Updated: 2014-07-04
Packaged: 2018-02-07 09:29:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1893942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LetsGankIt/pseuds/LetsGankIt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint and Natasha are the first in a week of Avengers to be interviewed by News Daily. But spies were never meant to be in the spotlight…and not for the reason you think.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Interview

It’s everything they hate. Lights, cameras, people watching them the way children look at bugs beneath a microscope. Every movement is analyzed, every glance shared is worthy of being splashed across the cover of a tabloid. Clint looks to Natasha and feels the pain he can see in her eyes. She’s used to a different kind of spotlight. She’s used to standing, attracting attention, but always as someone else. She’s always Natalie, Natalia, or Nadine. She puts on a mask and a costume and a persona and she does it for a purpose.

This is a spectacle. It’s a show.

It reminds Clint of a circus performance, everyone watching and waiting for him to throw a knife or shoot an arrow and miss. The audience watches like people waiting for a performer to fail.

He hates it.

“Clint- Do you mind if I call you Clint?” Her name is Paula. She’s a pretty brunette who looks like a clown with all the stage makeup.

He shrugs. “Clint’s fine.”

“And Natasha?” she asks.

“Actually-“ Natasha starts. Clint puts a hand on her arm and she sighs. “Yes, Natasha is fine.”

“Great!” Paula says. She’s oblivious to Natasha’s discomfort with the fake familiarity. “I’m just going to ask you some questions. You reply with whatever comes to mind. This channel and the show are family friendly so try and keep everything PG.”

She adds a sly wink at the end, like they’re in it together. Clint just nods. “Of course.”

“I don’t want to do this,” Natasha whispers to him. She never takes her eyes off the still growing crowd.

He resists the urge to squeeze her hand. He knows it’s what she needs but not what she wants. That kind of affection is only for them and these people won’t understand that. Two hands clasped together is enough to make the news these days. “I know. It’s mandatory. All the Avengers have to do it.”

He doesn’t know what else to say.

“Camera’s rolling in five….four….three….two…” The red ON AIR light blinks on, lights bright enough to make Clint cringe at first, and the sound of the news show’s theme song plays.

Paula smiles like she’s paid to, and she is, and turns to Clint and Natasha. “Good Morning, America. Welcome to News Daily! My name is Paula Greene and I’m here to begin the very special set of interviews we have set up for you this week. News Daily has an exclusive deal with the Avengers and we’re going to start this Monday with two of the more  _unknown_ members! Hawkeye and Black Widow!”

Clint doesn’t grimace and he thinks that’s pretty impressive. He wears the title Hawkeye with pride but it’s not for Paula to use. She keeps talking, she seems to like to talk. “For those of you unaware, and I certainly don’t know how you could be, they’re also known to their fellow Avengers as Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff.”

The crowd breaks into applause for no reason.

“So, Clint, let’s start with you,” Paula says. Clint is less than thrilled. He knows his past is off limits. He knows Natasha’s past is off limits. He knows that really, the only information Paula can ask about is the events of New York. That’s still a pretty terrifying subject. “How are you?”

“Good,” he replies instantly.

“Good, I’m glad to hear that. How do you like working with the Avengers,” she asks.

It’s a softball question, designed to get him open and unaware. She’ll ease into it and then slam him with something prying, private. Natasha had schooled him on the art of manipulation long ago. Paula will have to up her game if she has any hopes of throwing either of them off their game. He says, “I like working with the Avengers. It’s a good group of people looking to make a difference in the world.”

“So tell me, what was the first thing you did after New York,” she says.

He skips the part about going out for Arabic. “I slept.”

The audience laughs, Paula laughs, the camera men are stone faced. Clint realizes they’re the only real people there, the only ones who realize this for the farce it is. He suddenly likes them.

“Now, when it comes to New York….you weren’t playing on the Avengers’ team the whole time, were you?” Paula asks. Innocent smile and warm eyes but he’s not stupid enough to believe she doesn’t really know what she’s asking.

“No, no I wasn’t,” Clint says. He tries not to say it through gritted teeth. He thinks he succeeds.

“Can you tell us a little more about that?” she asks.

Natasha makes a little noise, almost imperceptible. Clint just rolls his shoulders and forces a smile to his face. “Of course. One of the abilities of Loki’s spear was a form of alien mind control. I was an unfortunate victim.”

“Alien mind control! How unbelievable!” she exclaims.

Clint feels his eye twitch. Unbelievable, his ass. “Well, it’s true.”

“Of course it is,” she says with an indulgent smile. “And how do your fellow Avengers feel about it?”

Clint shrugs. “They know it wasn’t me. They know I had no choice. And they know that I’d be there for them in an instant if they needed my help. Just like I was in New York.”

“The Avengers appeared in a time of government corruption and corporate crime,” Paula says. “How are they planning to handle that?”

“We’re not. That’s for the FBI and the like to handle.” Clint frowns. “The Avengers are there for a slightly different kind of issue.”

“But with the FBI not handling those issues, shouldn’t the Avengers step in?” Paula asks.

The audience cheers. They want reform. They want change. They want a band of heroes in spandex and capes to do it for them so they can remain in their seats watching TV.

Clint frowns deeper. “If the world is being attacked by aliens, monsters, or mad scientists you call the Avengers. If a business is being embezzled from, you call the cops.”

“So you don’t think it’s your problem?” she asks.

He wants to punch her. She’s twisting his words. “I think that shooting arrows at white collar criminals would be a poor use of the Avengers’ time _especially_ when we have departments and people that are trained specifically to handle those kinds of issues. I mean, it would hardly make sense for me to burst into a top floor skyscraper and shoot arrows at the man defrauding a company.”

“Perhaps you’re right,” she says, but she says it like she believes he’s wrong. “So, Natasha, let’s move onto you.”

“Great,” she mutters under her breath. Clint hears, snickers, and watches her nod her head for Paula to go on.

“You’ve sparked frenzy across the nation. Men want you, women want to be you,” Paula says. “Tell us a bit about your workout routine and diet.”

Clint can visibly see Natasha grating her teeth. “Hawkeye gets some questions about ethics, morality, and the duties of the Avengers and you’re going to ask me whether I eat salad or do protein shakes?”

The audience is silent. Clint and Natasha aren’t playing along. They aren’t performing.

Paula’s smile falters. “The nation is curious.”

“Natasha…” Clint mutters.

Either she doesn’t hear him or she doesn’t care. “The nation doesn’t need to know about my workout regimen. The women of the world don’t need to look like me. I spend hours a day training to stay fit in order to fight. I spent three hours this morning in a makeup chair here before you decided I looked presentable. I sacrifice chocolate and cake and extra goodies in order to maintain a body that will fit into that spandex cat suit you see me wearing. My body is honed in order to do my job, not so I can attract attention.”

“I….I apologize,” Paula stumbles over her words.

“Thank you,” Natasha says. She sits back into her seat. Clint can see she has relaxed, she’s no longer nervous.

Paula pastes a smile on her face again. “Is your partner always such an activist?”

“ _She_  can answer that for you herself,” Clint says. He understands Natasha’s relaxation. It feels good to stop pretending, to stop performing. It feels good to tell the truth.

The camera men are smiling.

Paula falls silent. This isn’t on the script. This isn’t an answer she’s ever prepared for. It’s bold and crass and honest. The pause on the set feels awkward.

Then the audience starts clapping. They’re surprised, confused, but maybe it feels refreshing. Whatever the reasons, they are clapping. They like this.

Paula smiles again. It’s still fake, and Clint wonders if she even knows how to really smile anymore. She scrambles for a question, anything, something safe and easy to answer. “So do we get to look forward to this? A group of heroes, eternally fighting the good fight. The same faces, the same goals?”

“We’re not the same. We’ve changed,” Natasha argued. “We’re people beneath the costumes.”

Clint agrees. “We may look the same. The change isn’t visible, at least not in myself. I don’t think it’s visible in the others. But we’re all changed, completely, forever. That’s normal. I mean, it’s biologically imperative that we change, adapt. New York changed me. I am changed.”

He shares a look with Natasha, then. Tabloids be damned.


End file.
